Awesome NIN remix!!

I was wrong when I thought Danny Elfman arranged the slightly altered Terminator theme which played throughout Terminator: Salvation. My friend and I searched for a good ten minutes after he wasted a dollar on buying what he thought included this theme. But ladies and gentlemen, he found it! The song from the trailer, "The Day the World Went Away", is by Nine Inch Nails, but is a remix of that song to include the Terminator theme and distorted bass. This song is AMAZING and the credit I gave to Elfman should swiftly be switched to RavenTheSkyKid, who made this remix, titled "The Day the World Went Away: War Distortion Mix". It's an amazing edit and you can all download it for free at ninremixes.com. (Songs-->The Day the World Went Away--> War Distortion Edit.) Download it and turn the bass up!

Terminator....I won't be back

The man vs. machine theme seems to be mounting with the release of Terminator: Salvation and Transformers 2 on the horizon. However, Salvation didn't quite cut it.

I'm not an avid watcher of the original trilogy- in fact I've only seen the second movie. Despite that, I was hoping to just get a thoroughly entertaining experience when I went to see this. Even that shallow expectation wasn't fulfilled, unfortunately. The writing was sub par, detracting from key scenes that demanded a strong script.

Christian Bale was the main character, and he seemed quite aware of this the entire length of the film. He provoked several bouts of laughter when he overacted in different situations. The same rough, hoarse voice pervaded every line of the movie, no matter what he was saying. He could have been ordering a Big Mac and still would've tried his best to sound dark and dramatic. Thoughts of the Dark Knight came back as Bale deactivated a motocycle terminator that looked exactly like the ejection cycle from Batman, then sped off on it. This peaked when he uttered the line "Where is she?" in the same urgent tone as "Where are they?" in the Dark Knight.

Also, another big no-no was letting Bale utter the line "I'll be back." When Arnold was bestowed with this classic line, he owned it. When he said, "I'll be back," you knew he was a badass, and he was going to own some people before he returned. Bale chose this line to be the only line he didn't try to overact. In fact, it was so nonchalant one would think that he was off to the market to pick up some eggs, or that the roast needed checking.

Despite these distractions, the CGI was quite good, and it was great to see an updated version of the Terminator blowing up everything within reach. Many references were given to the first three films, which helped please hardcore fans. Sam Worthington delivered as Marcus Wright and made the audience want to give him that second chance. ( I can't say more about him as it would include spoilers-just know he was convincing.)

Props to Danny Elfman for the amazing music. The pounding drums and strong brass are what saved many of the scenes in this movie. Every time that theme played you knew some shit was going down.

My Amateur Rating: C+

Things are Looking "Up" for Giacchino's New ST

Up's ST is up (no pun intended) for preview on Amazon ( http://tiny.cc/EWGoj ). The full album doesn't get released until May 26, but it was worth it to get a taste of what Michael Giacchino has thought up this time around, especially after hearing his phenomenal work on Star Trek. (http://tiny.cc/AR109)

From the 30 second or so clips of each track, the music at this point sounds like a great blend of traditional light hearted Pixar themes with the dominant genre on this ST being reminiscent of something you'd hear in a Cary Grant movie. Tracks 1 and 2, which are probably covering something to do with Carl (the main character's) past, are light, lounge style nods to smoky jazz clubs in the forties, while Track 7 feels like signature Pixar. I was glad they included actual tracks of sound effects on this release. The last three tracks are clips of just the sound effects from three different scenarios, done by the reputable Skywalker Sound, home of award-winning sound artist Ben Burtt. Burtt was a revolutionary in his work with Star Wars and most recently, WALL-E, last summer. "Memories Weigh You Down" is one of the best songs on here; I recommend it.

And of course, it wouldn't be a Michael Giacchino soundtrack without the characeristic puns and pop culture references for track names. I can't say this worked too well with Star Trek ("Enterprising Young Men" and "Nero Death Experience" are among them, not to mention "Nice to Meld You") but it's definitely appropos here. "Paradise Found", "Kevin Beak'n", "Escape From Muntz Mountain", and "Giving Muntz the Bird" are the most notable. There's also a track titled "52 Chachki Pickup", which I didn't see the humor in at first, and neither did a lot of others, but it turns out "chachki" is another word for a knick-knack or piece of junk, so I smell a veiled car insult in the works.

There are no obvious spoilers in the titles, so don't worry.(at least I thought so. if you feel that phrases will reveal the entire course of the movie to you and care enough not to listen,then so be it.) I wanted to get a feel for what the apparent villain (played by Christopher Plummer) in this movie would be like, so I Googled the name "Muntz". I'm counting on the fact that they're even making a reference here, but the most results I got were for a man named Earl Muntz, a notorious tinkerer and electronics fiend in the 40s and 50s. Check it out here, if you want - http://tiny.cc/Bswg3. He's also described as being rather off the wall. The timeline fits with Carl's, so I'm going to venture a guess that Muntz is somebody he knew in his youth that they find rather awkwardly roaming the jungle, or that he will embody most of the characteristics of this man Earl.

Whether these speculations are correct or not is beyond me, but it's always fun to figure out the easter eggs hidden in Pixar's work.

Make sure you get out to see Pixar's Up in theaters May 29th!